Before the Begining
by Gandalf3213
Summary: Radames' and Merebs' beginings and the adventures two teenages can get into in a royal palace.
1. Finding A Friend

**I don't own Aida, or anything like that.**

Radames ran down the corridor. He was searching for Amneris. He had to show her the sword his father had given him.

"Stop that crying and take it like a man!"

Radames pulled to a stop and looked around quizzically. He heard a whip cut through the air and a muffled scream. This was the norm for a palace like the Egyptian one he lived in, but something drew him towards the disturbance.

He ran down a service corridor and skidded to a halt five feet in front of two armed guards. In front of them, bending double from pain was a young bit, probably no older then ten. "Most likely, he's a Nubian prisoner." Radames thought. A wave of sympathy rolled thought the young boy's body and he screamed, "Stop!" both guards looked at him.

"I order you to stop!" Radames said with as much conviction as he could muster. The guards reluctantly left Radames alone with the brown boy; they didn't want to get in trouble with the Zozar.

Radames could see that the boy was struggling to stand up. He could see how much pain that gave him.

"Stop. No need for that. I'm Radames, by the way." He dipped his head quickly.

"M-Mereb." The boy stuttered. He wavered. Radames managed to catch him before he fell.

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	2. Coming Together

Radames hurried forward and draped one of the boy's arms over his shoulder. He dragged him the thankfully short distance to his quarters. Radames tried to clean off the wounds that almost completely covered the brown skin. When the boy-Mereb? Felt the water, he stirred and opened his eyes.

Mereb got up respectfully, ignoring his pain. "Sir, thank you, sir, you probably saved my life."

Radames could only nod. He was not used to being thanked, much less by a slave. "Why were you there?" he asked, curious.

Mereb shifted and his brown sin reflected the sun. "I couldn't stand the mines, sir. I couldn't stand it, so I ran. I wanted to go back to Nubia."

Radames had never talked directly to a Nubian before and was curious. "So you're a slave?"

"A prisoner, sir, if you please. I'm not a slave in my own land." Mereb grew defiant, then seemed to lose all his energy. He wobbled for a moment and would have fallen if Radames hadn't caught him and helped him to the bed.

"Mereb looked at Radames with pleading eyes and asked. "You-you w-won't

make me go b-back there, sir, would you?" Mereb stuttered from pain.

"Of course not. I couldn't take you back there. Still, I don't think my father would be to happy to find out that I saved you..."

"You could get in trouble, I understand." Mereb was silent for a moment before asking. "Sir, if you don't mind me asking, how old are you?"

"Ten." Radames said absently, running his hands through his hair.

"Sir, isn't that the age that boys usually get menservants?"

Radames nodded. "Dad was going to get me one but... Oh, you mean _you_ want to do it?"

"I don't want to do anything, sir, but if it saves me from the mines..."

"I get it, I'll talk to my father. He'll probably say yes. And Mereb..."

"Yes sir?"

"My name is Radames, Mereb, you can call me that if you like."

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	3. Running

**I own nothing**

"I can't keep this up much longer, Radames."

Radames smiled, "Don't worry, we're almost...there!" The twosome reached the top of the seemingly never-ending staircase and Mereb dropped the box that was filled with rocks. Literally. Two small boulders filled up the space in the package.

"Err...what are you going to do with that, Radames?" Mereb gazed at the rocks as if they were an alien species.

"Well, the girls are having their et-i-quit-" Radames pronounced the word in a long way. "lessons, right? Mereb nodded. "Well, don't you think we should liven it up a bit?"

Mereb looked confused, then excited, then frightened. "Sir, we could get in a **lot** of trouble for interrupting the Princess's lessons. A LOT of trouble."

Radames merely shrugged. "That's the fun part. Here, help me with these." Together, they managed to haul the rocks onto the ledge. Radames whispered, "On the count of three. One...two...THREE!"

The boys pushed the rocks so that they landed with two loud _thuds_ close enough to the girls to scare them, but not close enough to hurt a hair on their heads.

An eruption of screams broke out from the small crowd below. Radames and Mereb ducked back into the balcony and ran down the staircases. They practically flew out of the palace. They were almost safe-

"STOP!"

A large hand descended on a shoulder of each of the boys. They were turned irresistibly around to face an Egyptian guard. And not a very happy one at that.

"Were you," he bagan in a slow, menacing tone, "Or were you not just at the princess's etiquette lesson.

The two showed their most innocent faces. "No." they said, smiling sweetly.

The guard looked at them, then backhanded Mereb across one cheek. "I don't believe you."

Radames looked at Mereb, who was already starting to pick himself up off the ground. Scratched and blood covered one of his cheeks. Hot anger flowed through Radames's veins. Nobody treated his friends like that. He didn't care where they were born, nobody was going to be treated like that.

"I told you we weren't there." Radames stated, his voice like ice. "I suggest you believe us." He pulled Mereb to his feet and almost dragged him away from the guard. After a couple steps, he whispered, "Run," and they ran.

And kept running.

They never looked back.

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	4. Leaving

**I own nothing, get it?**

"Do you really have to leave?"

Radames smiled. It was at least the eighth time Mereb had asked that question. "Yes, I do, Mereb. I could try to get you passage on the ship, but I don't think the Captain wants Nubians."

Mereb carried another drawer full of clothes over to the bed where he and Radames were packing for his trip. "It's not that, sir." He said, dumping the clothes onto the mattress. "Your father-your father said that when you left, he'd send me to the mines."

Radames whipped around, a scared and confused look on the fifteen-year-old's face. "What?" he gasped. "But just this week there's been three cave ins. That's suicide!"

Mereb nodded. "I know, sir."

Radames smiled sadly. "Don't worry, I'll think of something."

But even after almost all afternoon of thinking about it, he could only come up with one idea. "There's no way around it." He said. "You'll have to stow away on the ship."

"But sir," it was Mereb's turn to look confused. "I thought the Captain didn't want Nubians."

Radames smiled. "He doesn't, but by the time he knows you're there, it'll be too late. He'll just have to live with you."

Mereb looked pleased. "I'll stay out of your father's way until tomorrow. I don't want to give him an excuse to send me to the mines." He finished helping Radames pack, asking all kinds of questions.

"What's a ship like? I haven't been on one since I got brought over from Nubia. I remember that they're big and tilting. And they rock a lot."

"What are we trying to find? A big piece of land or something?"

"Will we see Nubia?"

Radames tried to answer all his friend's questions, though it wasn't easy, because he really didn't know the answers to some of them himself. He had never realized that Mereb was scared of the water, and he teased him about it mercilessly.

"You'd be scared of the water, too." Mereb retorted, "If the last time you saw your home was from the top of a barge with shackles on your wrists." Then he muttered something in his native tongue, a habit he only referred to whenever he was upset or angry about something.

Radames was quiet, "I'm sorry." He finally said. "I never thought of that in that way. I know that you were only a boy."

"Yeah, well, now you know." Mereb muttered something else in his old language, and Radames was fascinated.

"How do you make sounds like that? For all I know, you could be cursing all of Egypt, but it makes it sound beautiful-like music." Radames was amazed that he had never thought to ask Mereb about his home.

"Yes, my language makes everything sound good. Much better then the clunky Egyptian tongues." He smiled to show he was kidding, and Radames put his arm around his friend. They walked towards the door, getting ready for the next part of their journey.

Together.

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	5. Tomorrow

**I own nothing**

Radames woke up, covered in a cold sweat, and for a second he was surprised to find himself in a cage next to a girl. Then it all came flooding back-Aida, the docks, his father, getting sentenced to death. Aida woke up next to him, shivering slightly.

"What's the matter? Other then the fact that we're dying at sunrise?" she asked Radames, looking at him carefully.

He turned his head away from her. "I just...Mereb's dead. He's gone, Aida!"

Aida rubbed his back, murmuring, "You know, tomorrow you get to see Mereb again. And you won't have to be master and slave. You can be friends."

Radames shook his head. "Aida, Mereb was always my friend-my best friend. He always knew exactly what to say-especially to my father." Radames chuckled slightly at the thought of his father and Mereb going at it once again.

Aida snuggled next to Radames, "He told me that you saved him from the guards. Why?"

Radames frowned. It had been so long ago that he hardly remembered. "We were the same age, and he couldn't speak Egyptian. He couldn't fight back against the guards with words or with force. I just felt like I needed to help him."

Aida stroked Radames's hair back. "So the captain does have a heart. And morals. And a soul, maybe."

Radames gently punched her. "You of all people should know that I have a heart." He looked out of the cage into blackness. He felt Aida touch his arm.

"You know, you can be sad." She whispered. Radames shook his head.

"It's like you said. We'll be joining him tomorrow."

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